St Werburgh's Church Travel Guide

Werburgh Street (left as you come out of the castle, and then left again) was the site of Dublin's first theatre; today, it's home of Leo Burdock's , the legendary fish-and-chip shop as well as St Werburgh's Church . Reputedly, by origin, the oldest church in Dublin, its plain exterior, with peeling paint in motley shades of grey, conceals a flamboyant and elegant 1759 interior built in the height of Georgian style, which is well worth seeing. Unfortunately, as with a lot of Dublin's Church of Ireland churches, you'd better resign yourself to the fact that it nearly always seems to be closed; except for services on Sundays (at 11am). Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion , is buried in the vault; Major Henry Sirr, who captured him for the British, is interred in the churchyard. Also, John Field, the early nineteenth-century Irish composer and pianist who is credited with having invented the nocturne, later developed by Chopin, was baptized here, and in the church records there is mention of one "Molly Malone, fishmonger" who died in 1734.